OK, here's some stuff I've been up to in the last few weeks.

First, a few weeks ago, as I drove out to Ft. Hood on a Tuesday evening to give final exams, I drove up behind this dingy, bird shit spattered old Taurus. I saw the bumper stickers, and bein' a bumper sticker kinda guy, I eased up for a closer read.



Hmm. Maybe this stupid bitch should take some of her own advise. And I don't even own a truck.



The next evening, with the finals "done and dusted", as my wowman would say, I finally got a chance to meet another blogger that I've admired for a long time.

GuyK and his lovely wife "Sweetthing" are on a road trip, driving up through Texas on their way from Port Lavaca to Lake Waurika, Oklahoma. They'd driven over to Texas from their home in Florida to visit some bloggers and attend an impromptu blogger meet on the gulf coast.

Denise and I couldn't get down there the previous weekend, having other stuff to do. But Guy said he was gonna drive up near me on the way to Oklahoma and stay in a KOA park just south of Belton. After spendin' the night they'd continue up to Lake Waurika, set up a base camp up there to do about a months worth of catfishin'.

Well shit, that KOA place is just about twenty minutes from my house. So we decided that Denise and I would drive over there and sit a spell Wednesday evening, but only a spell. We had plans for that night, and our own journey to take.



We drove over to Belton, found the KOA camp just next to the Expo Center, found their trailer, rousted them from it's dark confines and spent the next twenty to twenty-five minutes gettin' to know one another a bit better. It was wonderful. I'm constantly amazed at the fun I keep having, meeting some of the cool folks I've gotten to know through the bloggosphere.

During our conversation, Guy mentioned that he'd visited the old fort at Goliad while they'd stayed down in Port Lavaca. The place is a shrine to those of us who know some Texas history. It's where lots of Texas patriots died... were murdered, during the war for independence from Mexico in 1836.

Guy got a bit agitated as he told me that he'd gone into Wikipedia to read up on the massacre, only to come away shocked and angered by the bogus stuff he'd read there. Apparently the author of the piece believed the Texans who'd fought against Santa Anna were just fighting to preserve slavery.

I guess he kinda got his wars mixed up. Anyway, Guy wanted me to go in and try to edit the piece. So, a few days later, I went in, clicked the edit button and rewrote the "Background" part of the piece. Click over there and see if you think I did a good job.

After that great visit, with Guy holding a big, thick book I'd loaned him(my friend Jim's recently published book on Custer and the Reno drama), we all shook hands, hugged, took a few pictures and parted company. You can see him leanin' on the book there in the picture above. It's excellent. Check it out.

Denise and I enjoyed the visit tremendously, and we're planning to drive up and join them in Oklahoma, to camp out and go fishing in a few weeks. But again, Denise and I had plans for that night, so we had to go. We had tickets in hand, and had to drive up I-35 to attend a Kings Of Leon concert in Dallas that was starting in only a few hours.



We got into the American Airlines Center just as the lead-up band finished their set and the roadies came up to set up gear for the Kings. That was on purpose. I'd looked on YouTube to see if the lead was gonna be any good. Didn't take long to decide that by missin' them we could spend those extra minutes chillin' with Guy and his lovely wife. Worked out all around.



The Kings of Leon were wonderful. This is one of the bands my buddy Mushy has turned me on to. Thanks man. It really was one of the best concerts I've been to in a while. I was familiar with about half the music they played, and even the stuff I didn't know was really good.



For the most part, the lighting for the stage was set very low and subdued. So I was afraid that my pictures wouldn't come out well. If you go over to FlickR, you can see the rest of the set. I think most of them turned out pretty good, but realize, I take a LOT of pictures. The cullin' process is ugly.

Anyway, that's enough for one post. There's a few more in the works, and there'll be more pictures to work on after this weekend. I'm goin' up to Dallas again this afternoon with my buddy Gary and we're gonna see the Allman Brothers and Widespread Panic at the Superpages.com Center (at the state fair grounds). I can't wait! It's gonna be wonderful.

Denise will fly home from Kentucky this evening while I'm up there enjoyin' myself. I've left her car in the long term parking so she'll be able to get home without shellin' out $20 for a taxi. Long term is only (only?) $8 a day. She'll land around 6:40PM, and then I'll roll back into the house from the concert at about 2AM, and then we'll get reacquainted.

I'm gonna get a haircut in Salado at 10AM Saturday, and then Denise and I will head down towards Austin. We're gonna meet two of my best friends, Jim and Terry from Ft. Worth, down in Bastrop, East of Austin, and attend the annual Jazz Jam. Eric Johnson will play a set there Saturday night (he lives down there in Bastrop), along with a few other local artists. It's an annual benefit for the local Boys and Girls Club. It's a fun time. We'll eat dinner there at the gig, and then spend the night at a local hotel. We have a reservation. And then we'll see what kind of trouble we can get into Sunday (there's a gun show, but it's not on the agenda for sure).

Anyway, shit, I know. No wonder I'm pooped. Well, what can I tell ya. I guess I just don't want to miss anything. So, you guys have a great weekend and we'll get back together on the other side of this one. Cheers!